A new method to identify men suitable for treatment of recurrent prostate cancer

This project will fund a radiographer for four years to develop an analysis technique to identify men with recurrent prostate cancer who would be suitable candidates for additional curative therapy. The researcher will achieve this by using existing, advanced technologies to image the prostate glands of men with localised, recurrent prostate cancer, and combining the data in a new method of data analysis. This will help precisely identify the location, and extent, of recurrent cancer within the prostate. We hope that this will not only identify suitable men for existing curative therapy, but also pave the way for development of localised, curative treatments.

Why we funded it

Currently, around 2,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with recurrent (returned) prostate cancer after radiotherapy each year. These men are usually not offered curative treatment, because existing therapy options target the whole prostate gland and are oftenaccompanied by severe side effects, which can dramatically reduce quality of life.

This study aims to find a way to precisely identify the area and extent of cancer recurrence within the prostate gland, thus allowing the development of targeted curative treatment. This could potentially reduce the severity of any side effects, and make the destruction of remaining prostate cancer an acceptable treatment option.

In a nutshell

Looking at using new analysis methods to combine information from different advanced imaging techniques to precisely locate the position and extent of recurrent cancer within the prostate. This project has the scope to identify men suitable for existing curative treatment of recurrent cancer, and also to pave the way for development of localised therapies.